St. Landry democrat., 1887-10-01

| all tne DaDeS ne maSSacreQ. mere Is
Charles Guiteau, and Jim Fiske, anc
Robespierre, the friend of the French
guillotine, and all the liars, thieves, house.
burners, garroters, pickpockets and lib.
ertines of all the centuries. They have
| all got crowns, and thrones, and harps
and sceptres, and when they chant they
sing: thanksgiving, and honor, and
glory, and power to the broad religion
that let US all into Heaven without re-
pentance and faith in those disgraceful
dogmas of ecclesiastical old-fogyism"
My text gives me a grand opportunity
of saying useful word to all young men
who are now forming habits for life
time. Of what use to stonemason OF
bricklayer is plumb line? Why not
build the wall by the unaided eye and
hand? Because they are insufficient, be-
cause If there be DETECTION in the wall
it cannot further on be corrected. Be-
cause by the law of gravitation wall
must be straight in order to be symmet-
rical and safe. A young man is in dan
ger of getting a defect in his wall of
character that may never be corrected.
One of the best friends | ever had died of
delirium tremens at sixty years of age,
though he had not since twenty-one
years of age-before which he had been
sipated-touched intoxicating liquor
until that particular carousal that took
him off. Not feeling well in street on
hot summer day he stepped into drug
store, just as you and | would have
done, and asked for dose of something
to make him feel better. And there was
alcohol in the dose, and that one drop
aroused the old appetite, and he entered
the first liquor store, and stayed there
until thoroughly under the power of
rum. He entered his home raving ma
MAC, his wife and daughters fleeing from
his presence, until he was taken to the
city hospital to die The combustible
material of early habit had lain quiet
nearly forty years, and that one spark
ignited the contlagration. Remem-
Der that the wall may be one hundred
feet high, and yet DETECTION one foot
from the foundation affects the entire
structure. And if you live a hundred
years and do right the last eighty years,
you may nevertheless do something at
twenty years of age that will damage all
your earthly existence. All you who
have built houses for yourselves or for
others, am not right in saying to these
young men, you cannot build a wall so
high as to be independent of the charac-
ter of its foundation? A man before
thirty years of age may commit enough
sin to last him a lifetime. A cat
that has killed one pigeon cannot be
cured. Keep it from killing the
first pigeon. Now, John, or George,
der, or Andrew, or Henry, or what
ho 6ric
say here and now: mo wild oats for
me, no cigars or cigarettes for me, no
wine or beer for me, no nasty stories for
me, no Sunday sprees for me, am going
to start right and keep on right. God
help ME, for am very weak. From the
throne of eternal righteousness let down
to me the principles by which can be
guided in building everything from
foundation to capstone. Lord God, by
the wounded hand of Christ, throw me
plumb line!"
Lord Nelson's general direction when
going into naval battle was, no man can
do wrong that places his ship close
alongside that of the enemy. My friend,
you will never do wrong if you keep
your life close alongside the Ten Com
mandments Do right, and you can be
as brave as Maria Theresa, who rode up
the Hill of Defiance and shook her sword
at the four corners of the earth.
But" you say, you shut US young
folks out from all fun" o, no! l like
fun believe in fun. l have had lots
of it in my time. But have not had to
go into paths of sin to find it. No credit
to me, but because of an extraordinary
parental example and influence | was
kept from outward transgressiOns,
though my heart was bad enough
and desperately wicked. l have
had fun illimitable, though | never swore
one oath, and never gambled for so much
as the value of pin, and never saw the
inside of haunt of sin save as when ten
years ago, with commissioner of police,
and a detective and two elders of my
church, l explored these cities by mid
night, not out of curiosity, but that |
might in pulpit discourse set before the
people the poverty and the horrors of
underground city life. Yet, though |
never was intoxicated for an instant, and
never committed one act of dissoluteness,
restrained only by the grace Of God,
without which restraint | would have
gone headlong to the bottom of infamy,
| have had so much fun that I don't be-
lieve there is man ON the planet in the
present time who has had more. Hear
it, men and boys, women and girls, all
the fun is on the side of right. Sin may
seem attractive, but it is beautiful, and
like the manchineel, tree whose dews
are poisonous The only genuine hap
piness is in an honest, Christian life.
The Chippewa, wanting to see God,
blackens his face with charcoal and fasts
till he has vision of what he calls God.
NV God can see best when | take my
hat off and let the sunshine blaze in my
face and after a reasonable breakfast.
He is not God of blackness and starva
ton, but of light and plentitude, and
the glory of the MONDAY sun is Egyptian
midnight compared to it. There they go
two brothers. The one was converted
year ago in church, one Sunday morning,
during prayer, or sermon, or hymn. No
one knew it at the time. The persons on
either side of him suspected nothing, but
in that young mans soul this process
went on: Lord, here am, young man
amid the temptations of city life, and
am afraid to risk them alone; come and
be my pardon and my help; save me
from making the mistake that some of
my comrades are making, and save me
now" And quicker than flash God
rolled Heaven into his soul. He is just as
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